Seabreeze’s Charles Nelson scores, shines in Oregon debut

Tuesday

Sep 2, 2014 at 2:34 PMSep 2, 2014 at 2:35 PM

In his first game with Oregon, Seabreeze product Charles Nelson returned a punt 50 yards for a touchdown.

By Danny Kleindanny.klein@news-jrnl.com

Some 3,000 miles from Oregon’s Autzen Stadium, Charles Nelson Sr. sat in a small room in Daytona Beach and pulled out his phone to read a text message.“Did you see that punt return?” the message from Seabreeze coach Marc Beach read.Nelson Sr. smiled.“Hell yeah,” he wrote back.By the time Sunday morning arrived, there weren’t many football fans from either coast who hadn’t. Charles Nelson, a former Seabreeze Sandcrab and 2014 News-Journal Athlete of the Year, was one of the Ducks’ most buzz-worthy freshmen this summer. He needed only nine seconds in the third quarter on Saturday night to raise that hype to a fever pitch.After fair-catching his first punt-return attempt, Oregon’s strength and conditioning coach, Jim Radcliffe, told Nelson to get ready.“He came over and said, ‘You’ve got the next one again,’ Nelson said. “I was just like, ‘OK, let’s do this.’ ”Nelson caught the ball at the 50-yard line, ran to his right, planted and left a South Dakota defender diving at air. He then broke to the sideline, displaying the speed that made him one of the most feared players in Volusia County over his prep career.Nelson cut back inside at the 20 and walked in for the score, padding the Ducks’ lead to 48-13 in a game they would win 62-13 to open the season.He said he didn’t notice the reaction of the nearly 58,000 fans.“I just tuned everything out when I was on the field,” Nelson said. “I didn’t even look in the crowd to see the people. … To be honest, I didn’t even hear the crowd. I just kept hearing my helmet getting patted on.”As quiet and reserved as Nelson can be, he couldn’t escape the attention as soon as the lights went out.He estimated he had 50 text messages waiting when the game was over, despite the contest not ending until 1:54 a.m. back home.“I couldn’t keep up,” Nelson said. “I could see on Twitter, Facebook . . . it was blowing up. It felt like it was everywhere.”Nelson made sure to make time for his father, who finally heard from his oldest son at 3 in the morning.“He said he felt good,” Nelson Sr. said simply.The two discussed the game just like they would any typical Friday night. Nelson’s first play was a catch that was ruled out of bounds. He then reeled in an 8-yard grab on the Ducks’ first drive of the third quarter. Nelson also recorded two tackles on special teams.“He was really excited about his play,” Nelson Sr. said. “He said he was nervous when he went out there but after that first play, he was good.”Nelson Sr. was a little worried when the night began as well. He tried to call ahead to local places, asking if they carried the Pac-12 Network. When he got to the Ale House around 9 p.m., the game wasn’t on and Nelson Sr. began to make more calls.“We were starting to go crazy,” he said.He eventually found his way to the house of a friend, Maurice Edwards, who had the proper cable package.There, he was joined by his son Camari, Sean Hamilton and current Seabreeze linebacker Chayce Hamilton.Chayce Hamilton, who has known Nelson since he was 5, said it was a surreal experience to watch his former teammate play on the big stage.“It made me real proud of him,” Hamilton said. “… Every time I saw him on TV, I’d get up and tell everybody, ‘there he is, there he is on TV.’ It was real exciting.”When Nelson scored, the room exploded.“We’re all standing up yelling ‘there he goes, there he goes’,” Nelson Sr. said. “When he scored, it was like we scored. We were going nuts.”Beach, meanwhile, watched the play and ran through a familiar set of emotions.“I’m thinking, ‘OK, they’re actually kicking to him.’ That was awesome to see him do that,” Beach said. “And let me say this: That ain’t going to be the last time you see that.” Kenny Scott, a former Seabreeze and Georgia Tech standout who helped train Nelson since eighth grade, didn’t get to see the highlight until the next day.Scott just laughed and shook his head.“All I could say was ‘he did it; Charles did it again.’ It’s the same old Charles Nelson, just in a different uniform these days,” Scott said.